Shakka

Born in Notting Hill, in West London, Shakka has since the late 2000s developed a career positioned at the crossroads of contemporary R&B, soul, alternative pop, hip-hop and touches of indie rock. A singer, songwriter and producer, he first drew attention with self-produced projects Foolishness in 2009, then the mixtape The Shakka Crown Affair in 2011, before broadening his audience thanks to his a cappella covers series Shakkapellas. This early period established a flexible vocal writing, often anchored in a clearly assumed British accent, and a taste for tracks that move between melody, sung rap and urban production. Shakka then appeared alongside several artists from the London scene, notably on Wretch 32's Blackout in 2013, and in parallel continued his own releases with the EP Tribe in the same year. After The Lost Boys in 2015 and The Island in 2016, two EPs that accompanied his rise to wider visibility, Shakka continues to navigate between singles, collaborations and production work, including for the Chewing Gum series. His debut album, Road Trip to Venus, was released in 2021. In his songs, Shakka blends tight rhythms, soulful refrains, Caribbean or Afro inflections, and a way of moving from an intimate register to more direct formats while staying in the realm of British urban pop.